playing with yarn
by Silverflare07
Summary: Austin thinks he's a cat. Trish thinks it's hilarious. Dez thinks this would be a good time for ham. Dallas thinks he should ask Ally out, but cat-Austin is a little territorial. And Ally thought it couldn't get any worse. .Auslly oneshot.


The only thing you really need to know about this fic is that it was inspired by a sneak peek of _Deejays & Demos_ that I saw. It has literally nothing to do with the episode itself, but we do learn that Dez took a class on hypnotism and hypnotized Austin to act like a cat anytime someone says "kitty cat."

Then, this one shot popped into my head and pretty much wrote itself. Enjoy guys!

Also, I could not think of a title for this story so _playing with yarn_ is really just a reference to the fact that Austin spends about 2/3s of this story thinking he's a cat.

UPDATE:

**Okay, this isn't an actually update to the story. Sorry about that guys. But I am using the idea this story is based off of (of Austin getting stuck as a cat) for a spec script that I'm sending in to a contest. So I wanted to add this to the story _before_ I sent it out (or even wrote it) just in case there ends up being any questions later on. So, feel free to ignore the rest of this.**

**My name is Ashley Sampson.**

**This idea is completely mine. I came up with it when I first saw the _Austin & Ally _episode Deejays & Demos. **

**Therefore, I give myself complete permission to use said idea, although it won't be exactly the same, in a spec script for a contest. **

**And this probably wasn't even necessary, but I wanted to cover my bases. Just in case.**

* * *

><p>"See you next week Nelson." Ally waves good-bye to the younger boy who beams up at her.<p>

"Thanks Ally! I promise not to bring my own piano next week!" And then he dashes out of the store, nearly running into Austin and Dez as they enter it.

Ally shakes her head and pulls out her book, opening it to where she'd been writing before Nelson had come in for his weekly lessons. "He said that last week too." She laughs slightly and then catches sight of the two boys who are standing at the counter. "Hey guys."

Austin grins. "Hey Ally!" He looks excitedly at her book. "Are you working on my new song?"

Ally nods and slaps his hand away has he goes to grab for it. "Don't touch my book." She's laughing though, because at this point, she's said it so often that he'd really have to be an idiot to actually try and mess with it. He just likes teasing her and she knows it.

"That's awesome!" Dez exclaims, pulling out his camera. "I'm going to need a tub of chocolate sauce and two puppies!"

Trish looks up from the magazine she's reading over on the benches in the front of the store at their friend's odd statement. "You do realize that chocolate is bad for dogs, don't you?"

"I know." Dez says, like she's an idiot for even thinking he wouldn't. "The chocolate sauce is for the midget wrestlers. _Duh!_"

All three friends exchange confused looks at this. But they've all also learned to accept the slightly outrageous things Dez says. He's certainly got a more…_unique_ creative process than they do, but he always manages to shot amazing videos for Austin, so they've stopped questioning it.

"I'm also going to need a ham." He informs them, digging in his backpack for said meat. "Huh?" He comes up empty handed and confused. "I could have sworn that I had some in there this morning." He shrugs. "Oh well." He turns and makes for the store's entrance. "I'll just go get some more and be right back."

Trish, Austin, and Ally all wave at their eccentric friend before turning to face each other and grinning. "He ate the first ham earlier." Austin explains.

Trish shakes her head, laughing slightly. "I honestly cannot believe the stuff he keeps in there."

Ally shrugs. "After being friends with you guys for almost a year, nothing really surprises me anymore."

She makes her way to the front of the store, stopping as a young grey and white kitten walks past the entrance. "Aw," she smiles at the animal. She's always had a soft spot for cute and cuddly things (it's one of the reasons she's so fond of Austin). "Look at the cute little kitty cat."

"Meow!"

The meow comes from behind her and she turns in surprise to find Austin looking at her with wide brown eyes and licking his hand. Her mouth makes a small 'o' of surprise and behind Austin, Trish is doubled over in laughter. "Good one Ally!" her petite friend calls. "I completely forgot about that."

"Me too." Ally admits. "Otherwise I wouldn't have said it."

"Meow?" Austin cocks his head, rubbing his "paw" against his hair.

Ally shakes her head. "Okay. That's enough of that. Kitty cat." She says again.

Austin looks at her and smiles. "Meow!"

"What!" The songwriter's eyes widen in shock. "Kitty cat!" She tries again. Austin continues to lick his hand. "Kitty cat!" The third time apparently wasn't the charm either. She whirls to face Trish. "That was the trigger word last time wasn't it?"

Trish nods, trying very hard to keep the grin off her face. "Yeah. Dez just said kitty cat twice."

"Then why isn't it working this time!" She knows she sounds frantic but she's pretty sure that Austin thinking he's a cat is not a good thing.

Trish shrugs but starts laughing again as Austin begins desperately chasing the spot of light that's on the floor, caused by the Miami sun hitting a pair of cymbals a customer is holding up. "Dez probably changed the trigger word or something." She laughs as Austin nearly runs into the wall (the customer is clearly doing this on purpose at this point). "But who cares, this is hilarious!"

Ally tries to glare at her friend, but Austin's literally leaping from where the spot of light appears on the floor to where it moves to next and she can't stop the giggles that are bubbling up her own throat. The customer amuses the girls (and himself) for another few minutes before putting the cymbals down and continuing to browse the store. Ally shakes her head as Austin returns to licking himself and turns to face Trish. "Maybe you should text Dez and get the new trigger word."

Trish waves her phone. "Already done. Well, except I just told him to come back as soon as he was done."

"Why didn't you just have him tell you the word." The brunette asks as she sits down on one of the benches.

"Because," Trish grins again as Austin jumps onto the bench next to Ally and snuggles his head into her lap, "this is too hilarious!" She's back to laughing again.

Ally freezes as her best friend's head rubs affectionately against her stomach. "What is he doing?"

"Oh come on Ally," Trish says, sitting back down on another bench. "You know how cat's always have that one favorite person. You must be Austin's."

Austin meows in agreement, bringing his head up and bumping, none to gently, against Ally's chin. Her hands fly up to her jaw. "Ow!" She cries. "What was that for?"

Trish is pretty sure she's just not going to stop laughing today, which is just fine with her. "I think he wants you to pet him."

"What? No!" Austin bumps his head against her chin again, this time with more force. "Ow!" Ally's eyes water a little in pain. "He's going to bruise my jaw!"

"Pet him!" Trish insists. "Or he just going to keep doing it."

Ally sighs as Austin lifts his head again. "Fine." She treads her hands through the blonde's hair, stroking his scalp lightly. Austin smiles in contentment and settles his head back down on her lap. She turns to her friend. "So how's your job at the book store?" She asks.

Trish shrugs. "It was going great until I tried to build a pyramid with the books. After I knocked down all the best sellers and the table with the summer reading list books on it, they told me to take a nice long break."

"You got fired." Ally translated.

"Yeah pretty much." Trish shrugged, like it was no big deal, which considering it could sometimes be a daily occurrence, it really wasn't. "How's your new song for Austin coming?"

"Fine. We were supposed to work on it today." She glances down at Austin, rolling her eyes. "But clearly that's going to happen any time so-" She stops mid-sentence, cocking her head to side. "Trish is he…?"

Trish nods, laughing so hard that she rocks back and almost falls off the bench. "He's purring!"

Ally shakes her head, but doesn't stop "petting" him. "I didn't even know people could do that."

"Hey sweetie!"

Ally turns to face her father. "Hey dad."

He walks up to them. "Hey Trish, Austin…" He trails off as he sees the position the blonde boy is currently in. "Um, honey, why is Austin-"

"He's been hypnotized to think he's a cat and he won't leave me alone and Dez changed the trigger word to snap him out of it, so we can't snap him back."

Lester looks thoughtfully at the boy who is currently trying to snuggle even deeper into his daughter's lap. Then he watches Ally's annoyed expression and tries not to smirk. "Is he purring?"

Ally sighs and Trish breaks into laughter once again. Whatever reply she might have given, however, is cut off by a customer who asks for some help picking out a keyboard. She stands and points a finger at Austin who sits up and looks at her with more wide, innocent eyes. "Stay." She says firmly. She takes a few cautious steps back and when Austin makes no move to follow her, she turns completely to help the customer.

Lester grins again, patting Austin on the head. "I like him." He tells Trish.

Trish nods. "Me too. He's hilarious."

The older man shakes his head, before turning to face his daughter. "I'd like if Ally dated him. He always takes good care of her and he clearly likes her a lot."

Trish smirks. "I think Austin would like that too." She turns to face the singer. "Wouldn't you, Austin?" She coos.

Austin meows happily, in agreement and Lester shakes his head again, but can't help smiling at the young girl who has been daughter's best friend since kindergarten. "You shouldn't take advantage of him when he's like this." He says

Trish laughs. "Come on Mr. Dawson, you know me better than that."

"Well don't take _too much_ advantage of him when he's like this." He amends with a nod.

Trish shrugs and can't keep the smirk off her face. "No promises. But I'll do my best."

-/-

"This keyboard is probably your best bet if you're daughter's a beginner. It's got several songs already programmed into it, and the lights above the keys light up when you play them to help you learn them. It also helps you learn where the keys are for when you start playing other songs. It's only $150, so it's nice keyboard for a beginner."

The woman nods "Thank you!" She says happily. "This will be perfect. Is it okay if I come back and get it tomorrow?"

"Of course." Ally rings up the ladies total and hands her the receipt. "Just bring this back in with you and it's all yours."

The lady thanks her again and makes her way out. Ally waves goodbye and when she turns, she is startled to see Austin sitting on the counter, "washing" his "paw."

"Get off the counter!" She scolds, but Austin doesn't move.

"Uh, honey." She can see her dad is trying not to laugh and why is she the only one who doesn't find this situation amusing anymore? "There's no rule about cats being on the counter."

She sighs. "Ugh! Fine he can st-" She freezes, her back going ramrod straight as something wet makes its way up her cheek. "Oh. My. God!" She shrieks.

Trish is laughing so hard at this that she does actually fall off the bench and even her father can't control his laughter anymore. "Now Ally, you know that licking is just how cats show affection." He tells her before walking away, still laughing loudly.

She turns to glare at Austin, who is beaming her, completely unaware of how many "personal space" rules he has just violated. "I'm going to go bleach my face." She informs Trish.

"Why? He just licked you."

Ally sighs exasperatedly. "Yeah but who knows what the last thing he ate was. Probably a window burger or something off his pants!"

This sends Trish into another fit of laugher. Ally glares at her best friend, but her face immediately brightens as a tall and tan brunette boy walks into the store. "Hey Ally." He greets, waving.

"H-hey Dallas!" Ally's hand goes straight for her hair but she smacks it down with the other hand, quickly smiling at her crush.

He takes a few steps closer, neither of them noticing how Austin's eyes narrow. "I was wondering…"

"Yeah?" She tries to keep her excitement out her voice but it fails miserably and she knows it.

"Do you think after you get off work, you might want to catch a movie with me?"

Her face brightens. "Ye-"

She's cut of by a hissing sound and Austin firmly planting himself between her and the cell phone accessory cart guy. Austin growls and swipes his hand in Dallas' direction, as if he might actually have claws that could injure said boy. Dallas raises his eyebrow at the odd behavior and the growling that has now accompanied the hissing. "Umm…"

"Sorry." Ally peeks around Austin looking apologetic. "He's been hypnotized to think he's a cat and we can't snap him out of it."

Trish watches with the situation with amusement. She feels bad for her friend but she's said it before and she knows she'll say it again: Funny is funny. And she's always been more on team Auslly than team Dally anyways. Austin is standing even taller than usually and even though he's not on all fours, Trish still gets the distinct impression that his heckles (if he had them) are raised. He takes another step forward, growling menacingly. Dallas takes a few steps back, raising his hands in front of him, clearly not wanting to fight Austin, especially when he thinks he's a cat.

"I should go." He tells him. "Maybe some other time." And then he's out the door, brushing past a bemused looking Dez who is holding a ham.

"What did I miss?" The taller boy asks.

Ally does her best to look at her friend. Her efforts are hindered slightly though because Austin has returned to her side and latched his arms around her shoulders, nuzzling his head against her cheek affectionately. "What's the new trigger word." She asks, sounding desperate. There's only so much cat-Austin that she is equipped to handle and she'd met her quota when he'd licked her cheek.

"Oh," Dez shrugs, "that's easy. It's pineapple."

Immediately, Austin stops nuzzling her and pulls his head back looking puzzled. "What's going on?"

Ally throws his arms off her shoulders. "You!" She points her finger at him and he backs away, confused and slightly nervous. "You-you-argh!" She turns on her heel and marches up the stairs, slamming the practice room door behind her.

Austin turns to his friends. "Um, what did I do?"

Trish has been trying very hard not to laugh now that Austin is actually back to normal, but at his face she breaks. Her stomach is going to be rock solid if she keeps laughing this much. "You-You-You were stuck as cat!" She manages to get out in between her laughter.

"I was what?"

"Dez must have changed the word that snaps you back out of being a cat because when Ally accidentally said the initial trigger word, we couldn't get you to snap out of it. And you wouldn't leave Ally alone."

"Really? Why is she mad about that?"

"You licked her."

Austin is taken aback by this. "I did?" He can imagine that Ally is not particularly pleased by that, she had several "personal space" rules and he's almost positive that licking her violated a few of them.

Trish just nods, she's laughing so hard she can barely breathe, let alone talk. Dez supplies the next bit of information, always eager to be helpful. "And I'm pretty sure you just ruined Dallas asking her out too."

He pales at this. "I-I did?"

Trish finally manages to get her laughter under control. "He came in here to ask her out, but when he tried to talk to her you got in between them and started hissing and growling. He walked out of here so quickly you would have thought someone had set his pants on fire."

Austin's pretty sure he's going to puke. Ally is most definitely not going to be happy. And he's lucky if she'll ever speak to him again, let again help him write songs. "I-I'll be back." He says before dashing up the stairs.

Trish and Dez watch him go before Dez turns to his much shorter friend. "He licked her?"

Trish nods. "Oh yeah. I thought she was going to burst a blood vessel."

There's silence for a few seconds before the two friends sink onto the benches and dissolve into laughter.

-/-

Austin opens the door to the practice room to see Ally sitting at the piano, listlessly hitting a few random keys. She looks up at him as he walks into the room and throws her a sheepish grin. "Hey."

"Hi." She deadpans.

Austin cringes. "Look, Ally, I'm really, _really_ sorry."

She shakes her head, but there's a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth and his heart swells at the sight. "It's alright." She says finally. "It's not like you knew what you were doing."

He offers another apologetic smile. "I really, uh, licked you?"

She nods. "Yeah. That reminds me," she scrubs at her cheek, "I need to go bleach my face."

This insults him. "Hey. My tongues not that gross!"

"No. But knowing you, the last thing you ate was something like a window burger."

"Or something off my pants." He agrees, smiling at the girl in front of her. "So…you're not mad at me?"

Ally shakes her head. "No. We're fine." She says, smiling at him in return.

He can feel his entire face brighten and he pulls his best friend into a hug. "I'm really sorry I ruined Dallas asking you out."

Ally breaks the hug and looks at him, like she's trying to figure something out. "It's okay." She says finally. "Why did you do it though."

"I don't know." He says, shrugging and trying desperately to ignore the niggling voice in the back of his head that whispers _liar liar_.

He thinks that maybe she can hear that voice too, because she doesn't look like she even kind of believes him. Her hands are on her hips and he's pretty sure he's going to have to come up with something quick. "Austin…"

Dammit. He hates being in situations like this. He hates it more than the friend zone, which is where he's spent the better part of the last six months (well he's technically always been there he supposes, but it wasn't until about six months ago that he actually realized he cared). He paces and she's looking at him with a raised eyebrow and he realizes that his stalling, and that he's being obvious about it, and now she's never going to believe any excuse he can come up with, which actually doesn't really matter all that much because he cannot for the life of him come up with anything anyways.

"Ugh!" He groans in frustration finally. He doesn't even know what to say to her.

So instead, he grabs her shoulders, leans in, and kisses her.

When he pulls back she's staring at him in complete shock. He's also blushing for what might actually be the first time in his entire life. "I guess I'm just not really fond of him when I'm a cat." He rubs the back of his neck, a nervous habit that almost no one sees, because he's hardly ever nervous. "Or when I'm not cat." He mumbles, but he's pretty sure Ally catches it.

Her eyes widen and he's positive she caught the last bit. "Oh." She's silent for a moment and Austin can't do anything but shuffle nervously from one foot to the other. Finally, to his immense shock (and relief) Ally's face breaks out into a smile. "Well, you do have kind eyes." He looks up at her, not quite believing that he's actually hearing what he's hearing. "And your hair does flop in just the right way."

He grins, taking a step closer to her. "And I have family who's been to Texas. Austin is way cooler than Dallas."

She grins back. "I'm beginning to realize that."

"So…" He sticks his hands in his pockets, suddenly nervous again. "Are we friends or something…"

"Or something." She agrees, leaning up and kissing his cheek. "You just need to give me a day or two. This is an awful lot to digest."

Austin smirks, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Do you think maybe you might have digested it by Friday?"

She shoots her own playful smirk right back at him. "I don't know." She says, but her voice is teasing. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," he shrugs as nonchalantly as he can without removing his arms from her waist. "I was thinking if you had, maybe we could catch a movie and grab some dinner."

She nods happily, standing on tiptoes to bring her face to face with her best friend. "I think it would be the _cat's meow_."

She bursts into laughter as Austin groans. "_Ally!_"

-/-

Trish and Dez finally manage to get their laughter under control and are both pleased to note that their friends are not back from whatever conversation they're having in the practice room. Trish wipes a few of the tears from her eyes (laughing until you cry is definitely one of her favorite past times). "Man." She says, still chuckling lightly. "I cannot believe how perfectly today played out. It's like someone was pulling strings!"

Dez smirks. "Oh you mean like someone purposefully changed Austin's trigger word and then purposefully let a kitten lose by the store, before waiting a little while and then purposefully telling Dallas to ask Ally out on a date?"

Her laughter stops completely at this. "What? You-you?"

The taller boy reaches into his backpack and pulls out the grey and white kitten that had set the whole series of events in motion. "I may have." He replies, sounding more cunning than Trish had ever realized he could.

"Devious." Trish smirks at her red haired friend. "I like it!"

* * *

><p>Well there you have it. I really enjoyed writing this. And I hope you guys enjoyed reading it!<p>

Let me know what you think! Reviews really do make my day!


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